Remaster Knoppix without Remastering

Why go through complicated steps to remaster Knoppix, when there are a number of methods to get the most of the functionality without the fuss?

Tweak initrd

Along with the other boot files, under boot/isolinux/ is the default Knoppix
initrd file called minirt.gz. This file is the initial root image that
Knoppix mounts. Within the image are essential files for the boot process,
including the init executable, but the file of most interest to Knoppix
hackers is the linuxrc file, which acts as Knoppix's general startup
script. First, make a copy of the minirt.gz file (in my example, I assume it
was mounted under /cdrom), uncompress it and then mount the filesystem:

Now, if you look in the top-level directory of that mounted filesystem, you
will see the linuxrc file. A lot of the script defines default settings,
such as which filesystems are built in to Knoppix and the process Knoppix
uses to mount them, but you also can see where Knoppix defines system-wide
defaults and also allows you to override them. For instance, the following
lines define the default Knoppix directory and cloop file and the ability
to overwrite them via a cheat code:

If you want to add some extra functions to the boot process, read
through the script to identify where would be best. For instance, at some
points of the script, the KNOPPIX cloop filesystem isn't loaded yet, nor
are many common modules. If you aren't sure where to add your changes, just
add them to the end of the script before the comment #Give control to the
init process. At that point, Knoppix should have major modules and filesystems loaded and mounted.

Once you are finished with your tweaks, unmount the minirt filesystem and
recompress it. Then, you can overwrite the default version with your custom
edition:

umount temp
gzip -9 minirt

These are only a few examples of how to remaster Knoppix without
remastering. One of the great things about these methods is that they are
typically easy to try, so if you make a mistake, you can fix it quickly.
Plus, most of these methods lend themselves well to migration from one
Knoppix disc to the next for when the next version of Knoppix is released.
Finally, because most of your custom tweaks can be self-contained, if you
want to share them with friends, you simply can share your knoppix.sh and
configs.tbz files, for instance, instead of an entire ISO image.

Kyle Rankin is a Senior Systems Administrator in the San Francisco Bay Area
and the author of a number of books, including Knoppix
Hacks and Ubuntu Hacks for O'Reilly Media.
He is currently the president of the North Bay Linux Users' Group.

Kyle Rankin is a director of engineering operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, the author of a number of books including DevOps Troubleshooting and The Official Ubuntu Server Book, and is a columnist for Linux Journal.

Comment viewing options

Hi Dear Kyle
Thanks for the info. Currently I'm using Knoppix version 6 and as it has switched to LXDE, the instruction for the creating persistent disk image, as you said by selecting from menu ... is not available.
I have two questions:
1) How can I create the disk imgae from the terminal ?
2) After creating a disk can I resize it ?
Thanks a lot.
Best regards

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